The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1887-12-22

so careful TO wash their hands before q
meal but did not wash their hearts2 II is
q bad thing to have mclean hands; it is a
worse thing to have an uneiean heart.
How many people there are in our time
who are very anxious that after their death
they shall be buried with their feet toward
the east and not at all anxious that during
their whole life they should face in the
right direction so that they shall come up
in the resurrection of the Just whichever
way they are buried. How many there
are chiefly anxious that a minister of the
Gospel shall come in the line of apostolic
succession, not caring so much whether
he comes from Apostle Paul or Apostle
Judas. They have way OF measuring O
gnat until it is larger than o camel,
Again, my subject photographs all those
who are abhorrent of small sins while
they are reckless in regard to magnificent
thefts. You will find many a merchant
who, while he is so careful that he would
not take a yard of cloth or a spool of
cotton from the counter without paying for
it, and who if bank cashier should make
O mistake and send in roll of bills S5 too
much would dispatch a messenger in hot
haste to return the surplus, yet who will
go into stock company in which after a
while he gets control of the stock, and
then waters the stock and makes $1,000
appear like 100000. He only stole
100000 by the operation. Many of the
men of fortune made their wealth in that
way. One of those men, engaged in such
unrighteous acts, that evening, the even
ing of the very day when he watered the
stock, will find wharf rat stealing a
newspaper from the basement doorway,
and will go out and catch the urchin by
the collar, and twist the collar so tightly
the poor fellow cannot say that it was
thirst for knowledge that led him to the
dishonest act, but grip the collar tighter
and tighter, saying: IL have been looking
for you long while; you stole my paper
four or five times, haven't youP you miser-
able wretch" And then the old stock
gambler, with voice they can hear three
blocks, will cry out, "Police, police!"
That same man, the evening of the day in
which he watered the stock, will kneel
with his family in prayers and thank God
for the prosperity of the day, then kiss his
children good night with an air which
seems to say, al hope you will all grow up
to be as good as your father" Prisons
for sins insectile in size, but palaces for
crimes dromedarian. No mercy for sins
animalcule in proportion, but great leniency
for mastodon iniquity. poor boy slyly
takes from the basket of a market woman
q choice pear-saving some one else from
the cholera-and you smother him in the
horrible atmosphere of Raymond street
Jail or New York Tombs, while his cousin,
who has been skillful enough to steal
$50, 600 from the city, you will make him
candidate for the New York Legislature! !
There is great deal of uneasiness and
nervousness now among some people in
our time who have gotten unrighteous for
tune, great deal of nervousness about
dynamite. tell them that God will put
under their unrighteous fortunes something
more explosive than dynamite, the earth
quake of his omnipotent indignation. 1t
is time that we learn in America that
sin is not excu5able in proportion as it de-
clares large dividends and has outriders in
equipage. Many a man is riding TO per.
dition, position ahead and lackey behind.
To steal one copy of newspaper is gnat:
to steal many thousands of dollars is a
camel. There is many fruit dealer who
would not consent to steal q basket of
peaches from neighbor's stall, but who
would not scruple to depress the fruit
market; and as long as can remember we
have heard every summer the peach crop
of Maryland is a failure, and by the time
the crop comes in the Misrepresentation
makes difference of millions of dollars.
A man who would not steal one peach basket
steals $4,000 peach baskets. Go down in the
summer time into the Mercantile library,
in the reading rooms, and see the news
paper reports of the crops from all parts of
the country, and their phraseology is very
much the same, and the same men wrote
them, methodically and infamously
carrying out the huge lying about the
grain crop from year to year and for a
score of years. After q while there will
be "corner" in the wheat market, and
men who had contempt for petty
theft will burglarize the wheat bin of ma
tion and commit larceny upon the Ameri-
can corn crib. And some of the men will
sit in churches and in reformatory institu-
tions trying to strain out the small gnats of
scoundrelism, while in their grain elevat-
ors and their storehouses they are fatten-
ing huge camels, which they expect after
awhile to swallow. Society has to be en-
tirely reconstructed on this subject. We
are to find that q sin is inexcusable in pro-
portion as it is great.
l know IN our time the tendency is 10
charge religious frauds against good men.
/ They say: "Oh, what class of frauds
you have in the church of God in this
day." and when an elder of a church, or q
deacon, or minister Of the Gospel, or a
superintendent of Sabbath school turns
out defaulter, what display heads there
, are in many of the newspapers. Great
primer type. Five-line plea: "Another
Saint Absconded," "Clerical Scoundrel-
ism, ""Religion at Discount, "Shame
| on the Churches" while there are thou
sand scoundrels outside the church 10
/ where there is one inside the church, and
the misbehavior of those VINO never see
the inside of church is so great it is
enough to tempt man to become q
! Christian to get out of their company.
/ But in all circles, religious or irreligious,
the tendency is to excuse sin in proportion
as it ia mammoth. Even John Milton in
his paradise Lost" while he condemns
Satan, gives such grand description OF
him you have hard work to suppress your
admiration. Oh, this straining out OF
small sins like gnats, and this gulping
dcwu great iniquites like camels.
This subject does not give the picture OF
one or two persons, but is a gallery in
which thousands OF people may see their
: likeness. For instance, all those people
who, while they would not rob their neigh
Dor of farthing, appropriate the money
aud the treasure of the public. A man has
house to sell, and he tells his customer
| 1t is worth S2O,OO0. Next day the assessor
comes around and the owner says it is
worth $4,000. The Government of the
United States took Off the tax from per-
sOnal income, among other reasons because
so few people would tell the truth, and
many man with an income of hundreds
of dollars day made statements which
seemed to imply that be was about to be
hanued over to the overseer Of the poor.
Careful to pay their passage from Liver
pool to New York, yet smuggling In their
Saratoga trunk ten silk dresses from Paris
and half dozen watches from Geneva,
Switzerland, telling the custom house off.
Ger on the wharf, "There Is nothing in that
trunk but wearing apparel" and putting q